Google wipes out Glass data, works on new device

After erasing all data regarding Google Glass - eye-wearable head-mounted device that displayed information in a smartphone-like hands-free format - from various social media platforms, tech giant Google is reportedly working on a new version of its face-mounted technology.

It has wiped all the related data regarding this $1,500 smart device, which it stopped selling in January 2015, from the social-media channels, including Facebook and Twitter, CNET online reported.

According to the report, Google is currently working on a product nicknamed as Project Aura which will be redesigned from the ground up.

The in-charge of the new specs is Tony Fadell -- a Google employee since it bought his company Nest in 2014.

Fadell is man behind AppleiPod and the one who persuaded the tech world to fall for a thermostat, Nest's first product.

The social-media blackout seems to be Google's attempt to expunge from the internet the last vestiges of a brand that never achieved mainstream coolness, the report pointed out.

"Thanks for exploring with us. The journey doesn't end here," says a message on the Google Glass website.

Although the device made wearing spectacles and keeping them in place, especially while doing physical work such as running, much easier and guiding a group of cardiologists successfully opening up of a chronically blocked right coronary artery in the cardiac catheterisation lab, some Glass wearers have reported problems with device.

The main objections to the camera-equipped device were privacy-related, with many concerned about hacking, surreptitious photography and filming, the report said.

The device was also banned from many movie theaters due to concerns about piracy.

Several people ET spoke with about Ericsson’s India operations, including its current and former employees, said the Stockholm-based firm has reduced headcount in the last one year or so across functions, in line with its global restructuring.